A 2015 Sloan Foundation grant to nonprofit Phoenix Bioinformatics supported the development and initial deployment of a paywall service for scientific databases. Sloan support enabled the organization to generalize its technical infrastructure to offer database providers fine-grained metering of access (and the ability to flexibly set the boundary between free and paid access), and develop customer-facing tools to allow institutional and national subscribers to manage and report on subscription use. Based on an assessment of its operating costs and likely growth opportunities, the organization has developed a realistic, fee-based funding model that promises to deliver long-term, independent sustainability within the next two years. Funds from this grant provide operational bridge funding to the organization while it implements this plan.